City Centre scam, LudhianaChandigarh, September 15.
2006.An eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation
between the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, and the Leader of the
Opposition, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, on the floor of the Punjab Assembly
over the Ludhiana City Centre scam today rocked the House.Sitting just opposite each
other, both leaders yelled at each other. Protocol and decorum of the House
was ignored.

At one point of time, the
situation reached such a flash point that the Akali and the BJP MLAs raised
slogans and rushed towards the Chief Minister infront of his seat. Responding
to the situation, the Congress Ministers and MLAs shielded the Chief Minister.

The Opposition MLAs repeatedly
disrupted the proceedings of the House and consequently the speaker, Dr
Kewal Krishan, had to adjourn the House twice. He finally suspended all
42 SAD and BJP MLAs for the remaining period of the current session.

However, the suspended MLAs
did not leave the House till it was adjourned for the day and continued
to raise slogans against the Chief Minister, the Speaker and the Local
Bodies Minister, Chaudhary Jagjit Singh. Meanwhile, the Treasury Benches
quickly disposed the Legislative Business by passing as many as 11 Bills
in just little half an hour.

Later outside the House,
Capt Amarinder Singh, alleged that Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, who remained
present in the Speaker's gallery till the conclusion of today's sitting
of the House, had been giving directions through gestures from the gallery
to the Akali MLAs.

The tempers in the House
began flaring up immediately after question hour when Mr Badal got up to
know the fate of the adjournment motion moved by his party for a special
discussion in the House on the issue of the scam.

Mr Badal remarked that Capt
Amarinder Singh had pocketed several hundred crore from this scam. It led
to a verbal duel between the two. The Akali MLAs started raising slogans.
Later, the Speaker announced that he had admitted the adjournment motion
and asked Mr Badal to speak on it.

Mincing no words and making
the Capt Amarinder Singh and Chaudhary Jagjit Singh a direct target of
his “attack”, Mr Badal, said that the Chief Minister had pocketed the money
earned from the Ludhiana City Centre deals. He further alleged that the
Chairman of the Improvement Trust had been made a scape goat.

The Opposition demanded a
CBI inquiry, Mr Badal said. He said the conditions laid in the tender and
later in the agreement were changed from time to time to make it suitable
for Today Homes which was allocated the project.

He said the company had a
dubious past and was involved in disputes elsewhere also. No special purpose
vehicle was set up which was to be set as a part of this joint venture
project floated by the Ludhiana Improvement Trust and the private company.
All rights with regard to the sale of property were also given through
the power of attorney to the company. All this was done inspite of the
strong opposition from the Principal Secretary, Local Bodies.

He said all terms and conditions
were changed at the behest of the Chief Minister. He said the over all
scandal involved a loss of Rs 2,100 crore to the state exchequer and by
now already loss of Rs 630 crore had been suffered by the government treasury.
Mr Badal said the government pressurised leading companies to withdraw
case from the Punjab and Haryana High Court against Today Homes.

However, in his reply, the
Chief Minister said the government had nothing to do with this project
and it had not invested a single penny in it. The agreement was signed
between the Ludhiana Improvement Trust and the private company.

Rejecting a CBI probe in
the scam, he said inquiry would be conducted by the Vigilance Bureau which
had been asked to give report in a month. He said as irregularities had
been brought into the government's notice, it had appointed its own officers,
Mr S.R. Kler as the administrator of the Trust to set things right and
remove all irregularities.

He said if any financial
bungling and changing hands of black money was involved in the project,
it would be probed by the Vigilance Bureau and the Income Tax Department
concerned.

Chaudhary Jagjit Singh said
the Trust authorities did not implement the orders sent by his department
and because of this reason nominated Chairman and members of the Trust
had been removed and an administrator had been appointed to set the house
in order.

During the debate on adjournment
motion, a hot exchange of words was also seen between the Finance Minister,
Mr Surinder Singla and the Akali MLAs.

Punjab orders probe into
Ludhiana city centre scam CHANDIGARH: In a face saving
bid, Punjab Government Thursday dissolved the Ludhiana Improvement Trust
(LIT) and ordered vigilance probe into charges made by Shiromani Akali
Dal (SAD) against Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh for colluding
with a developer in allotment of a Rs.3000 crore project being developed
by LIT.

The LIT, comprising of chairman
and seven members, has been dissolved following a direction from Chief
Minister Amarinder Singh, official sources said. Goverment has also ordered
a probe by Vigilance department. IG Vigilance CSR Reddy would conduct the
probe, official sources said.

The decision was taken by
the chief minister after Local Bodies Minister Jagjit Singh sent a letter
to the Chief Minister stating that the LIT did not carry out the directions
of his department in the project, the sources said.

Demanding resignation of
the Chief Minister for his "direct involvement" in corruption, SAD chief
Parkash Singh Badal had yesterday demanded a CBI probe into the scandal.
Badal has described it biggest real estate scam of the country.

Citing media reports, Badal
had said "there is no longer any doubt that the chief minister has thrown
every rule, every law and every norm of public accountability out of the
window for looting public exchequer." The top SAD leadership alleged that
despite various objections and 53 recommendations by the secretary of the
local bodies, the deal was given a green signal to favour the promoters.
It alleged that the Rs 3000 crore 'Ludhiana City Centre' project did not
even had the required plan sanction.

The alleged wrong-doings
in the multi-crore project, being developed by the LIT along with its joint
venture partner 'Today Homes' on a 25.5 acres of prime land was exposed
by media recently.

City Centre case: sale
stopped Fresh agreement to be signed

Chandigarh, September 15The Punjab Government today
stopped the sale of property at the controversial Ludhiana City Centre
with immediate effect. The project will, however, carry on and construction
work will not stop.

A fresh agreement will be
signed between the Ludhiana Improvement Trust and the company — Today Homes
— said the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, while addressing
a press conference here today on the sidelines of the ongoing session of
the Punjab Vidhan Sabha.

He, however, rejected a demand
of the Opposition for a CBI probe into the matter. An administrator had
been appointed by the government to run the affairs of the trust and he
had cancelled the power of attorney that allowed the builder to sell property.
However, construction would not stop as this was a prestigious project
of the state, said the Chief Minister.

A fresh agreement was being
drafted and a ‘‘special-purpose vehicle’’ would be set up to carry forward
the project. New clauses would be added, the Chief Minister said.

The Chief Minister said the
Akalis were trying to raise a non-issue. A vigilance probe had been ordered.
The Vigilance authorities had been asked to submit a report within one
month, he added. Also, the necessary steps had been taken to remove whatever
drawbacks were detected in the functioning of the Ludhiana trust. It seemed
the trust did not enforce the agreement in totality, said Capt Amarinder
Singh.

Today Homes had already deposited
about Rs 22 crore in the account of the trust as part of 30 per cent share
of the trust from the sale proceeds. When asked about allegations levelled
by Mr Sukhbir Badal, the Chief Minister said: " What does he know?" The
entire project was worth no more than Rs 1,500 crore and it was being wrongly
touted as being a Rs 3,000 crore project. " Mr Sukhbir Badal is just frustrated
and he knows that the court hearing in corruption cases against (Parkash
Singh) Badal will start soon. Hence, he is raising this issue", the Chief
Minister added. He alleged that during the House proceedings Mr Sukhbir
Badal, who was seated in the visitors' gallery, was seen directing MLAs,
which was wrong and he should have abstained from doing so.

The Chief Minister wondered
how anybody could say that the builder was dealing in black money. No probe
could reveal it and it was for the Income Tax Department to nab offenders.
" Will any purchaser of property reveal that he deposited some unaccounted
cash with the builder?" asked the Chief Minister.

BJP questions Congress
silence over city centre scam Thursday, 14 September 2006 LUDHIANA: The BJP Thursday
questioned Congress party silence over alleged real estate scam in Ludhiana
city Centre project and demanded a CBI probe. "Congress is still quiet
on the entire scam involving the Ludhiana City Centre project. The party's
silence tantamounted to acceptance of its role in the shady deals, which
would cause huge losses to state exchequer," Punjab BJP President Avinash
Rai Khanna told reporters here after a protest rally.Recently a private TV channel,
in a sting operation, had claimed that a builder was selling retail space
of Ludhiana City Centre through fraudulent means.

BJP, a key ally of SAD (B),
has decided to raise the issue in Vidhan Sabha, which will be in session
from tomorrow, and demand a probe by Central Bureau of Investigation in
the alleged scam, he said. Khanna said the scam will be probed if the SAD
(B)-BJP alliance came to power in the elections.